1. Field of the Invention
This application is related to U.S. Ser. No. 09/293,363 filed on Apr. 16, 1999 abandoned, U.S. Ser. No. 09/203,882 filed on Dec. 1, 1998 abandoned, U.S. Ser. No. 09/159,219 filed on Sep. 23, 1998 abandoned, U.S. Ser. No. 09/159,058 filed on Sep. 23, 1998 abandoned, U.S. Ser. No. 09/203,880 filed Dec. 1, 1998 abandoned, U.S. Ser. No. 09/201,323 filed on Nov. 30, 1998 abandoned, U.S. Ser. No. 09/320,004 filed on May 26, 1999 abandoned, U.S. Ser. No. 09/318,708 filed on May 26, 1999 abandoned, U.S. Ser. No. 09/274,433 filed on Mar. 22, 1999 now abandoned, U.S. Ser. No. 09/201,372 filed on Nov. 30, 1998 abandoned, U.S. Pat. No. 5,879,163, U.S. Pat. No. 6,151,586, U.S. Pat. No. 5,933,136, U.S. Ser. No. 09/531,237 filed Mar. 21, 2000 abandoned, U.S. Pat. No. 6,368,273, U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,476, U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,493, U.S. Ser. No. 09/518,426 filed Mar. 3, 2000 now abandoned, U.S. Pat. No. 6,068,615, U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,814, U.S. Pat. No. 5,569,212, U.S. Ser. No. 09/495,809 filed Feb. 1, 2000 abandoned, U.S. Pat. No. 6,186,145, U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,390, U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,603, U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,571, U.S. Ser. No. 09/495,809, U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,476, U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,493, U.S. Pat. No. 6,334,778, U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,801, U.S. Pat. No. 5,828,943, U.S. Ser. No. 08/682,385 filed Jul. 17, 1996 now abandoned, U.S. Ser. No. 08/233,674 filed Apr. 26, 1994 now abandoned, U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,393, U.S. Pat. No. 6,023,686, U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,133, U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,219, U.S. Pat. No. 6,246,992, U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,448, U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,386, U.S. Pat. No. 6,023,686, U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,219, U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,133, U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,219, U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,133, U.S. Ser. No. 09/441,408 filed Nov. 16, 1999 now abandoned, U.S. Ser. No. 10/024,445 filed Dec. 17, 2001, now abandoned, U.S. Pat. No. 6,196,970, U.S. Pat. No. 6,330,426, U.S. Ser. No. 08/953,883 filed Oct. 20, 1997 now abandoned, U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,837, U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,435, U.S. Pat. No. 6,330,426, U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,310, U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,603, U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,571, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,210,272. All of the above named applications are hereby incorporated by reference.
This invention relates to an interactive computerized system and process for behavior analysis and feedback, and more particularly to a system for monitoring intake and providing feedback according to a plan.
Diet and lifestyle are key factors in chronic medical conditions such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and many other conditions. As a result, there are hundreds of diets—fad diets, celebrity promoted diets, and medically based diets. Yet as a whole, Americans still eat a high fat, high calorie, junk food diet. Also, diet programs are notorious for the poor adherence by the dieters.
A problem with existing diets, weight loss programs, and healthy regimens is that the diets are very difficult to faithfully follow, or adhere to. The task of keeping track of what is healthy or required by the diet is so tedious that, as a result, many diet program participants return to fatty foods simply for convenience and lack of sufficient interest to overcome the tedium. Another problem is that the present systems do not provide enough measurement and feedback to let one know how they are progressing. Even with diet programs that require the dieter to visit a center to weigh in, the dieters are nevertheless on their own most of the time. Finally, food labeled as healthy food is usually more expensive than fatticr foods.
The following patents are examples of the prior art discussed above.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,128 to Diaz et al. discloses hand held individually customized interactive integrated circuit device for nutrition and exercise management. The device of Diaz et al. includes built in storage of extensive food lists with associated caloric and fat contents. Diaz et al. incorporates storage of exercises with associated activity caloric values or rates. Diaz et al. utilizes the individual's personal characteristics such as sex, age, weight, height, frame size, life style and goals with programmed calculations to derive optimum suggested weight, metabolic rate, daily caloric/fat intake targets, exercise targets and exercise/daily calorie burning rates. Diaz et al. tracks daily and historical individual caloric input/output, fat input, and weight which can be viewed in the form of charts and graphs. Optional medical programs take into consideration special dieting, medication and exercise requirements of patients with diabetes, high cholesterol, heart ailments, hypoglycemia and other diseases. Diaz et al. is good at tracking historical data but fails to provide a system that will automatically generate a food order for home delivery based on the derived information.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,691 to Abrams, et al. discloses a hand-held computer that prepares and monitors a goal-oriented weight, nutrition and exercise control program. Visual and audio prompts tell users when to eat and exercise, and provide suggestions for what to eat. Abrams et al. teaches assisting the user in setting safe goals for desired weight loss and the time required to achieve the loss. The user follows menu and exercise programs suggested by the system. The system records and analyzes the user's food consumption, exercise and weight loss programs. Finally, the computer displays feedback information regarding the user's progress towards achieving the desired weight. If the users have planned which meals they will select from a set of future recommendations, then the planned meals can be presented in such a way as to make selection and recording of the meals simple and quick. Also, meal planning allows the Behavior Planning routine to build a shopping list for the users to ensure they will have the necessary food on hand to prepare planned meals.
Diaz et al. is good tool for locally administering a weight loss program, however it fails to provide a system used for controlling diets for other medical purposes that will automatically generate a food order and make suggestions according to food pricing and availability information from a food delivery system.
What is needed is a system and method to measure a healthy diet while making it convenient and easy to place orders, learn about and try new foods that are acceptable to their diet program and their measured intake.